Part of a tree broken off in a rock slide lies along Highway 18 near the Big Bear Dam on Saturday morning after a cluster of earthquakes and aftershocks just north of Big Bear Lake and caused rock slides to temporarily close Highway 18 between Snow Valley and Arctic Circle.
Rick Sforza/Staff Photographer

The Southland was rattled Saturday morning by two earthquakes and a cluster of aftershocks that hit just north of Big Bear Lake and caused rock slides that temporarily closed Highway 18 between Snow Valley and Arctic Circle, but road crews were able to clean up the area and reopened the highway by about 12:30 p.m.

The largest temblor measured 4.6 magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Snowplows began removing rocks and debris from several small rock slides around 11:30 a.m.

Four motorcycles and two vehicles were left stranded, according to California Highway reports.

The rock slides started at the passing lanes at Lake View Point and extended 5 miles to Big Bear Dam, one mile of which was impassable at Lake View Point. The remaining four miles experienced sporadic rocks and dirt on the highway, said Shelli Lombardo, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

Caltrans was inspecting bridges and culverts, standard practice within 25 miles of the epicenter.

Thunderstorms passed through the area during the night and rock slides had been reported in the area prior to the quake, a CHP dispatcher said Saturday.

One motorist traveling along Highway 38, about 2 miles north of Valley of the Falls, hit a boulder that was in the road shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday but no injuries were reported, the CHP dispatcher said.

At one point Highway 18, which leads into Big Bear Lake, was completely shut down. About 200 vehicles were on the road in a traffic jam that went on for about a mile.

Many of those caught in the backup created a tailgating atmosphere as motorists waited for the road to be cleared. People walked around, chatted with the occupants of other vehicles, while some threw a football around and others ate lunch.

Arch Fuston of San Diego, who was heading to the Big Bear Lake area for the holiday weekend was just waiting it out.

“How often to you get the chance to be behind a rock slide?” he said.

Gary Fradella of Chino was heading up the highway on Saturday morning and was planning to have lunch on the mountain with his girlfriend, Dede McFarland.

The road closure resulted in a change in plans.

They used the time in the traffic backup to take the opportunity to eat lunch while waiting for the road to open.

Michael Foster dodged falling rocks as he made his way back home to Long Beach on his motorcycle after having breakfast in Big Bear Lake on Saturday morning.

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“I was weaving and dodging falling smaller rocks as they tumbled around me — it was insane!” he said. “It was certainly something I will remember.”

Foster said he managed to make it home and was not one of the four motorcyclists stranded by the highway closure.

“I always fear crazy motorists, but never falling rocks from an earthquake, good grief!” he said. “Anyway, makes for a good road story for me.”

As of midmorning the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department had not received any reports related to the earthquake, Cpl. Randy Naquin said in an email.

The shaking began at 9:59 a.m. when a sharp magnitude-4.6 jolt was felt followed by some rolling. Less than a minute later, a 4.4 quake was felt in the same location followed by smaller 2.7 and 2.4 aftershocks, according to the USGS.

There were reports the shaking could be felt as far away as Mexico, San Diego. Los Angeles and Huntington Beach. However, the shaking was most heavily reported in the areas surrounding the mountain city, including Redlands, Victorville, Colton, and Perris as well as Riverside.

On Thursday, the USGS recorded more than 60 earthquakes in the area.

The strongest were two that reached 2.4 magnitude. Police said they received zero calls regarding the swarm of shakes.

USGS seismologist Lucy Jones was asked on Twitter if Thursday’s events could have been be foreshocks.

She tweeted that, like any earthquake, a small temblor has a chance of being followed by a larger one. For example, she tweeted, a magnitude-2.5 quake has about a 1 in 10,000 chance of being followed by at least a magnitude-5 quake within three days.Staff Writer Greg Cappis and City News Service contributed to this report.